As part of my photography course, I have to track my development on a blog. The posts from September 2011 until January 2012 are part of a module called Project Management, for which I was required to work in a group of eight students to create an exhibition. The blog followed every step we took in order to create a successful gallery. The blog posts starting from September 2012 follow my final year on the course. I'll be documenting my research and analysis of my final year projects, as well as include notes of my Professional Practice unit - which prepares us for a range of post graduate options. Finally it also looks at a project called New Creatives, where I'll be working alongside an artists to help college students get more involved with art.

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Monday, January 9, 2012

Sorry for not posting for a while, I hope everyone has had a lovely holiday and a great new year. When the exhibition finished we had to do a few finishing touches such as cover up the holes and repaint the walls. Joe, the owner, luckily had some paint left over so we were able to use his paint to cover the walls. We also split up all the money between us, including the £60 deposit we had £121.06 remaining which means £13.45 each.

We also had enough time to look through the guest book and read all the messages people left behind. Here are a few:

"The layout and use of the space is good. Beautiful pictures. Well done."

"Excellent Exhibition guys! We can see you've worked hard, your work is amazing. Hope it goes well."

"Congratulations to you all, we enjoyed your different interpretations. Best of luck for the future."

"Very interesting to see the different takes on the same subject."

"You have certainly made the most of the limited space. Some really interesting and well presented work. Very impressed with the professional looking concept poster. Well done everybody, you can be very proud of the achievement."

"Superb quality of work with great thought provoking images. All of the subjects are so different but they go very well together. Highly impressive selection of work. Well done."

"I really liked the exhibition. It is a nice cosy place which creates an intimate atmosphere. The nine mini exhibitions all have their own style, which keeps it interesting. I like that some pictures are small and others quite big. My favourite is Elaine's work, closely followed by Adam's and Hannah's. Looking forward to seeing more of your work!"

Joe also left a message for us saying "Superb display of impressive works. All students work presents really well in the compact space available. The content of work is fascinating. drawing the viewer into a haze of visual indulgence. Soothing the soul and eviscerating the senses. Bloody nice people too! Don't be strangers!"

The skills I learned from curating this exhibition has given me the confidence to approach the manager of the Fawcett Inn and ask whether I could hang up some work in the pub. The pub has been completely refurbished and they are trying to turn it into a student pub. This is the same pub where we had our pub quiz so I thought it would be a great opportunity for both me and them to hang up some work. After they looked at my portfolio they were very optimistic and offered me some space in the pub. I have been in contact with the pub as to how I should display my work and the pricing of the images. Hopefully it will all be set up by the end of January. Because I took that step forward and asked if I could display my photos, the manager started telling me she had photos taken of her daughter and her dog every year, but her usual photographer couldn't do it any more. She asked me whether I wanted to take some photographs of her child and asked me for a price! Before this unit, I never really thought about having my own gallery or a space to display my work, but I have changed my mind and in the future I am hoping to have my own gallery.